Rose Namajunas Admits It’s ‘Pretty Scary’ Fighting Jessica Andrade In Brazil

Rose Namajunas will be making her first UFC women’s strawweight title defense against an opponent not named Joanna Jędrzejczyk this Saturday night.

“Thug Rose” faces Jessica Andrade in the main event of UFC 237 on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Jeunesse Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Although the champion, Namajunas has opted to head into enemy territory, facing Andrade in front of her native Brazilian crowd.

Speaking on today’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” Namajunas admitted that it’s a “scary” prospect, but she fully intends on overcoming the obstacle (via MMA Fighting):

“This time is different from any other time, obviously. This time it’s pretty scary, I must say,” Namajunas said. “It’s kind of, I feel like I’m in uncharted territory even though I have a lot of experience. There’s a lot of things that I do know but there’s definitely a lot of unknowns going into this one.

“I’ve spent not just the last year fighting the same girl, Joanna (Jedrzejczyk), but then years prior to that, even after having other opponents, I still was thinking about her. So this is the first time where I’m not thinking about her.

“I’m thinking about somebody else, thinking about Andrade, and at the end of the day it’s always just a fight against myself, so just remembering that has been a challenge, but it’s something that I’m going to overcome.”

Namajunas pulled off a shocker when she captured the 115-pound title from Jędrzejczyk in November of 2017. She was even more impressive in their rematch last year, out-classing the former champion en route to a unanimous decision victory.

She defends her title against Andrade, who is on a three-fight win streak. In her last outing, she knocked out former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz in devastating fashion.